Guest Blogger: Kathryn Frye

Robbie asked me to be his guest blogger, I guess I should feel honored, but I feel like he was just trying to get out of writing it himself. My life is not nearly as exciting as Robbie’s; I’m not shipped around the country by the university to cheer, but last week for my spring break my best friend and our mothers went on a Caribbean cruise. I was disappointed because in previous years the senior class from my school rents out a house at the beach where the entire class stays together. However, this year we all went our own way on vacations. In the past my parents have designed vacations around sites that they deem to have either historical or educational value. I must have by this point walked every hill of each civil war battle field in the country and if there is a maritime museum within sixty miles of where we were staying it was a sure bet my family would hit it. For this trip my mom and I set out one ground rule for the start: nothing educational. We left from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and cruised to Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Martin, and Half Moon Key. At the stops we stayed away from anything that involved learning and instead opted for excursions such as snorkeling, zip lining, and parasailing. On the ship I enjoyed the luxuries of the boat and friendly crew. Ironically enough it was the same ship that my mother and I sailed on in the eastern Mediterranean this summer, where of course we did properly educational touring. I was incredibly surprised when the maître d' I met this summer remembered me and welcomed me back. I enjoyed being back on the elegant Neiuw Amsterdam, this time with my best friend who I was able to show around and have some great times with. One amenity I was not able to take advantage of over the summer was the casino, but now that I was 18 I got the chance to try my luck on the slot machines where I won a whole quarter. The trip was a lot of fun, the perfect break from the stresses of school and college decisions. I know that it is something my friend and I will always remember as a special time before we head off in separate directions next year. And most importantly we were successful; I did not learn a single thing the entire week!

Travel

I just got back from Albuquerque, New Mexico at 6 am this morning. After five days in New Mexico, I was not ready to come back. The women’s team pulled out two wins in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament this past weekend. I will be traveling and cheering for them this weekend in Spokane, Washington for the Sweet Sixteen. We left Chapel Hill at 1:30 last Thursday afternoon. I boarded the plane with all the other cheerleaders, band members, and the Women’s basketball team. I was born in Maryville, Missouri, but only lived there until I was one years old. This was furthest out west I had visited until this weekend’s trip. I was really excited to fly all the way out to New Mexico for the tournament. I was especially excited for the warm weather, even though everyone has been bragging about the weather in Chapel Hill over the weekend. I went downtown the first night to experience St. Patrick’s Day in New Mexico. Never before have I felt like a minority in crowd like that night. The streets were crowded up and down with people. Unfortunately, most of the clubs were 21 and up which didn’t help most of us out. We finally found one all the way on the other side of downtown but it was about to close. One thing that really surprised me in New Mexico was how everything closed so early.  Every restaurant we tried to go to at 9pm was closed. I realized it was a Thursday night, but it was like this for the rest of the weekend as well. Old town Albuquerque didn’t consist of much, but it was neat to see a town that was so historic. I enjoyed sitting by the hot tub at night and lying out by the pool in the day. My stunt partner and I took some really neat stunt pictures in front of various places. If you are friends with me on Facebook, check them out. Even though there wasn’t much to do in Albuquerque, I enjoyed a relaxing trip. The women’s basketball team is awesome if you have never watched them play. Look for me on TV this weekend at the Sweet Sixteen in Spokane, Washington. I can’t wait for another awesome trip! Go HEELS!!

Did you know?

Most of time when we are in class we don’t get to talk about our hobbies and passions so I thought I would share two of my favorite hobbies. Ever since age three, I have been dancing on my feet more than I walk. I started out in an acrobatic dance class after I cried to my mom because I wanted to tumble like the Power Rangers.  After two years of acrobatics, I started to take tap and jazz classes. I eventually adopted all styles of competition dance throughout the years including tap, clogging, ballet, lyrical, jazz, modern, acrobatics, and hip hop. I started competing when I was nine years old and always competed every dance competition season until I came to college. My junior and senior year I took dance classes three full nights a week and taught one night as well. Dance has always been my artistic escape and is my passion.  I also was a male gymnast from fourth until eight grade. Even though I never competed with this, I gained much of my strength and tumbling skills from gymnastics. I competed with the gym’s All-star Cheerleading teams as well for four years winning two National Championships the last two years. This encouraged me to tryout of the cheerleading team at UNC. Even though most guys come in with no experience with cheering, tumbling, or stunting, they always are happy to take experienced male cheerleaders. Cheering at Carolina has been my favorite part of college. I am currently on the JV team with mostly freshman and sophomores working hard to gain all the stunt skills needed for varsity. I came to Carolina with all the tumbling requirements and have advanced my skills as well. I cheered at all the home football games and cheer for Women’s basketball. I hope to be on Varsity by basketball season next year, but it depends on how many new guys come to replace those currently on JV. I am really excited this weekend to travel to the Women’s NCAA Basketball tournament in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have never been out west past Missouri, so this is exciting for me. If the women win both of their games this weekend I will travel to Washington the next weekend. Dance and cheerleading are my current hobbies at UNC and are my stress reliefs. Even though they both keep me busy, both of these hobbies make me happy and keep me working hard.

Rando

Spring Break has been great so far for me. I am currently at North Myrtle Beach with six of my high school friends at a resort on the beach. I cheered at the Women’s ACC tournament in Greensboro all weekend and then came to the beach yesterday. The Women’s team played awesome until the last four minutes against dook in the championship game on Sunday.  At least we got one huge victory over dook this weekend.  It was really fun to cheer at the tournament though. Little kids would even ask me to autograph their shirts and posters. My girlfriend and I shared our one year and six months anniversary this past Sunday. I can’t believe we have dated this long and honestly couldn’t be happier. I also got to watch her school’s musical production of “Guys and Dolls” where she played one of main roles, Sarah. We got to the beach around 5:30 last night. We settled in and went to Hamburger Joe’s right up the road for dinner. This my favorite place to eat at Myrtle Beach because of the cheeseburgers and wings. If you have never ate there before you should. It’s always a good time. We met some college students also on Spring Break from Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan last night and today by the pool and hot tub. We hung out with some of them last night and today and are probably all getting together tonight. My friend Blakely who goes to NC State nicely made our crew eggs and pancakes for breakfast this morning. We had a late start but were also up really late. Our room has a mini hot tub in the room so after the outdoor hot tub closed last night we just chilled in the room. It’s been nice to catch up with my old friends and hear about their college experiences so far. All the guys are currently lying around while the girls went grocery shopping to find something to cook for dinner.  Hopefully they will make something good. A couple of people I also know down here are coming over after dinner to chill. Some other friends from UNC also came by for a while last night. The beach is not crowded at all and is mostly full of just college students on Spring Break.  I also might be traveling to Roanoke, Virginia this weekend but have not confirmed those plans.  I hope everyone is enjoying their break!!

Costa Rica anyone?

Spring Break 2011 here I come! But where am I going?  Most freshmen are just ready to just go home and relax while others venture out on the crazy adventure of College Spring Break. I might be going to the beach, but I will most likely just go home.  Hopefully next year I can plan a good trip in advance. During high school, my family each year made a trip to the Pigeon Forge, Tennenese. Last year I luckily got to travel to Costa Rica with my AP Biology class which consisted mostly of my best friends.  We traveled to many parts of Costa Rica including the rainforests, beaches, and volcano sites. My favorite part of the trip was walking down a large path of steps to a waterfall. At the waterfall we were able to swim in the water and enjoy the breeze. We also did a zip line through a rainforest at one site we visited. This was intimidating at the first drop, but actually turned out not to be scary at all. I did have a minor accident though where my nose barely scrapped across the zip line causing the outside of my nose to bleed. I was ok though and really enjoyed this experience. We also did white-water rafting at one site. This was entertaining because nobody in my raft had any experience with white-water rafting. We turned out to be pretty good and only flipped the raft one time. Halfway during this adventure we stopped and ate the most delicious watermelon and pineapple. We also were able to jump of a rope into the water which was fun. The pineapple in Costa Rica was probably the best I have ever had. The food in general was different and unique and consisted of at least some assortment of rice and beans. The fruit was always fresh and the coffee was amazing. I purchased like six bags of coffee just for my family on this trip. One hotel we stayed at always had monkeys running around. I tried communicating with them one day and ended up making them really mad. The biodiversity of plants and animals in Costa Rica amazed me. I recommend anyone who is interested in traveling to Costa Rica to do it sometime in your lifetime. I really enjoyed this trip and eye-opening experience.

FOR THE KIDS!!

So yes, I am one of the crazy kids who did Dance Marathon and stood on my feet for 24 hours this weekend. I was very anxious going into the experience but was excited to see how it would turn out. The first couple hours were awesome as everyone just danced like it was a normal night going out. One thing that was really interesting throughout the 24 hours was seeing live performances by all the acapella and dance groups on campus. I didn’t even know some existed, so this was neat. Oh and I saw Georgia and we took a picture.  After like six hours, I began to feel extreme pain in my heels, knees, and calves. As I would try to position myself in any comfortable position on feet, nothing was working. I constantly was doing stretches as my body became more and more tight and uncomfortable. The middle of the night was dreadful, but we headed outside to Kenan Stadium to see the sunrise at 6:30 am. Even though it was chilly outside, I had never appreciated fresh air as much. Yes I understand I am making this sound like a prisoner who was finally set free, but I really enjoyed going outside. If you’ve never watched the sunrise in Kenan Stadium you should. The dance team was even out there dancing to cadences being played by the drumline. I was amazed at this point on how enthusiastic the team leaders were. I had no energy, but being outside sure was a good prerequisite for an 8am flash rave. This flash rave was honestly insane and so much fun. As the flash rave was going on, I realized the more I moved, the better I felt. Yeah, this theory didn’t last too much longer. Around lunch time on Saturday I looked like a Zombie. My eyes could not stay open and I pretty much kept falling asleep while standing up. The last three hours were very inspirational as families from the Children’s Hospital shared their unique stories and how Dance Marathon helped them afford everything. Seeing the actual kids made it all worthwhile. The end was very emotional, but definitely made me realize I was meant to be there. I strongly recommend doing Dance Marathon before you graduate. This experience was nothing like anything I have ever done before, and really has made an impact on my view of helping others. Do it FOR THE KIDS!!

Cupid Wears a Diaper?

Valentine’s Day: some describe it as a celebration of love between couples, where as others refer to it as Single’s Awareness Day. It’s whatever floats your boat. Even though most people think Valentine’s Day is overrated, I find it enjoyable. I miss the days in elementary school where I would make a Valentine Box and everyone brought Valentine cards and candy for every classmate. I used to get so excited to make a trip to Wal-Mart to pick out my Valentine’s each year. In fourth grade, I had a huge crush on a classmate named Morgan. She had a boyfriend named Brandon at the time.  I decided to get her a huge plastic heart full of skittles for Valentine’s Day.  When I gave it to her, she started to blush and said thank you. The next thing I know she is talking to Brandon in the corner of the room. She walked back over to me and asked me to be her boyfriend. Apparently Brandon didn’t get her anything for Valentine’s Day, so I had won the girl’s heart. I look back on this and laugh because it sounds like typical elementary school. My question is: Why should the present you get your boyfriend or girlfriend matter? I took my girlfriend to Build-a-Bear this weekend because that is what she wanted. It sounds elementary, but it meant a lot to her.  I also took her out to eat at The Chop House Grille.  My brother didn’t even get his girlfriend anything, and she was happy. Each relationship is different and unique, but most couples get each other something for Valentine’s Day. I’ve never pulled off a surprise on Valentine’s Day, but would like to next year.  I am amazed at the guys who always seem to do this. Next year, if time allows, I would like to do something really special for my girlfriend. And no, this doesn’t include actions like the UNC student who dressed like Cupid in a diaper and brought roses to his girlfriend in Poli 101. I found myself crunched for time this year as Valentine’s Day approached, and wish I would have planned in advance. I do feel very lucky to be in a healthy relationship with an understanding girlfriend. She even gave me gift cards to Franklin Pizza and Pasta and my personal favorite, Biskis, in a heart box full of chocolate kisses. Valentine’s Day can be seen as overrated, but always seems to be a positive and thankful day in my life.